Hurrying up System Startups and Shutdowns

When your Computer - Desktop or Notebook first arrived, it would have appeared to be extremely fast to you. However, within the next few days, with you installing all your favorite programs and transferring all your data to your new Computer, you would notice a perceptible drop in speed. This is natural, provided the drop in speed is not too much. As you continue to use your Computer, its speed further decreases significantly. This is a natural process and is usually due to one or both of the first two reasons given below.

Your Files become non-contiguously arranged on your Hard Disk. The more non-contiguous your files and programs become, the more time it takes for a specific program to run, the more time it takes to locate a specific file stored on your Hard Disk and load it into the associated program. The solution is to periodically run a Disk Defragmenter, such as the utility bundled with Norton SystemWorks (Click here to read about Disk Managers). Windows has a free bundled Disk Defragmenter - access it from the following Menu: Start/ Accessories/ System Tools/ Disk Defragmenter. Although it is not as effective or thorough as Norton SpeedDisk, it will still restore a major portion of your Computer's lost speed
Registry errors and non-optimal Registry. The more programs you install and uninstall, the more Registry corruptions occur. While these would not cause your Computer to come to a grinding halt, they will certainly serve to severely degrade performance. This is why you need to periodically run Registry Defragmenters. (Click here for our Review of top Registry Optimizers)
Improper/ incomplete uninstall of programs. You should NEVER delete a program's folder, to uninstall it. The best manner to clean-uninstall programs is to run 3rd-party Uninstallers. Click here to read all about how to clean-uninstall programs.

The third reason given above is not a natural process, if you do not install/ uninstall programs. However if you do, it is a major cause for slow startup and shutdown in nearly all Computers, after a period of time!

HungPC

You have freeware Registry Scanners such as CleanMyRegistry as well - Click here to download CleanMyRegistry. If your Registry is corrupt and needs fixing, you might prefer downloading the freeware FixMy Registry. Download FixMy Registry by clicking the link, http://smartpctools.com/fix_registry/index1.html.

You are also welcome to purchase Uniblue by clicking the Purchase Button that comes up when you click on the advertisement.

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You are also welcome to purchase Norton SystemWorks Premier, which has earned our "Thumbs Up" as the Best Computer Utility, including cleaning the Windows Registry. The program currently costs US$ 99.99. We are affiliates of Symantec (Norton products) and we bring you all Symantec (Norton) products at the Best prices available on the Internet! Click the Norton SystemWorks advertisement to the right to securely purchase the product! The program is currently available for US$ 99.99 and is worth the money, for it includes a number of essential utilities that will keep your Computer WellOiled!

Do be advised that where your Windows Registry is concerned, a single false move will result in a crashed Computer! DO NOT use the first Registry Repairing solution that you come across!

It is wiser to use commercial products, where your Computer's working is concerned. We at WellOiledPC STRONGLY recommend that you go in for standard commercialware for the following categories of programs:
- Operating System
- AntiSpyware
- AntiVirus
- Registry Cleaners
- Disk Managers

For other categories of Programs, freeware is fine!

If defragmenting your Windows Registry and defragmenting your Hard Disk(s) does not - by-and-large - restore your Computer's lost speed, the next step is to check for Viruses and/ or Spyware. Read all about how to protect your Computer/ recover from a Virus attack - including a comparison of AntiViruses and purchase links to top-of-the-line AntiVirus programs, in the following pages: Virus and Antivirus. Read all about how to protect your Computer/ recover from a Spyware attack - including a comparison of Antipyware and purchase links to top-of-the-line AntiSpyware programs, in the following pages: Spyware and Antispyware

While the above two happen naturally and automatically - there isn't much you can do to stop or slow it down.

There are two more reasons for a Computer slow-down over time. We will discuss the procedure for reducing the number of Startup Programs, in this section. The other, fine-tuning your Virtual Memory Settings, is discussed in the page, Virtual Memory (click the Underlined, Blue text here, to read about how to fine-tune your Virtual memory settings)

The first of these is caused by having too many programs in your Startup. As you can count from the screenshot of my Startup Bar to the left, I have 18 Startup programs - apart from the Windows Update Icon (which has not completed a Windows Update yet). This is too many, but I am used to all these little programs... The more Startup Programs you have, the slower your Computer would become. It isn't advisable to have as many as 18 programs in the Startup, but then, I have now become used to all these little programs, ready and available, when I start my Computer...

While there is no ideal number of start up programs, the best rule here is to have only those startup programs that you really, really need. And that, obviously, depends on you! If you have less RAM to spare, the more stingy you need to be, with your Startup programs! To close and remove a program from starting up with Windows, you may have to do one of the following: Click on the Windows Start Button, place your mouse pointer on All Programs, so that Startup comes up on the submenu, as shown in the screenshot above. Now right-click on the Startup Menuitem you want to delete and left-click Delete in the popup that comes with the right click. Many programs need to be removed from the Startup group this way. Once removed this way, they will not start again, the next time you start Windows, so be sure you really do not need the program, before deleting it! Other startup programs are permanently removed by right-clicking on the program's Startup icon and left-clicking "Quit" or "Exit" Note that some programs can be removed permanently from the Startup group, while others are only removed for the current session of Windows - they will re-appear when you restart Windows!